Cibolo council delays action on Walmart deal

Updated 1:26 pm, Thursday, September 19, 2013

Cibolo has put on hold a deal that would require Walmart to make infrastructure improvements as part of the retailer's plans to build a store on a proposed site along Borgfeld Road.

The proposed agreement would require the retailer to pay $3.7 million for infrastructure improvements, mainly to Borgfeld Road. In exchange, the city would reimburse Walmart $2.89 million, which would come from a portion of the city's sales tax revenues generated by the store.

After convening in closed session at its Sept. 10 meeting to consider the proposed deal, the Cibolo City Council decided to table the measure until its next meeting next Tuesday.

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Mayor Jennifer Hartman said further discussion is needed by the council to consider the agreement because of the controversy surrounding Walmart's plans to build a 182,000-square-foot store on a 22-acre site between Borgfeld Road, Cibolo Valley Drive and North Main Street.

“It's a hot item and discussion,” Hartman said. “So the council just needs a little bit more time.”

Residents of the Bentwood Ranch and Falcon Ridge subdivisions oppose the store's proposed location because of concerns over traffic safety, its proximity to a school, and fear of increased crime in their neighborhoods.

Before the council went into closed session, City Manager Robert Herrera laid out the details of the preliminary agreement hammered out with Walmart.

As part of the proposed deal, Herrera said Walmart will make several infrastructure improvements near the proposed store site.

Those upgrades include widening Borgfeld Road to four lanes between Cibolo Valley Drive and North Main Street, installing a right turn lane and traffic signal at the intersection of Borgfeld Road and Cibolo Valley Drive, the replacement and lowering of a water line along Borgfeld Road, and the rerouting of an electrical power line along Borgfeld Road.

The city will reimburse Walmart for the infrastructure improvements over a 14-year period, Herrera said.

Other details include restrictions on truck routes. Walmart's delivery trucks would be prohibited from using routes that go through and are near neighborhoods, including Bentwood Ranch Drive and the portion of Cibolo Valley Drive north of Borgfeld Road.

Those trucks would have to take FM 1103 to North Main Street or the southern portion of Cibolo Valley Drive to access the store.

Herrera said truck deliveries would be prohibited at the store site from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and 3 to 4 p.m., the drop-off and pickup times for students at nearby Wiederstein Elementary.

In addition, Walmart would put in landscape buffering along Borgfeld Road, adhere to noise restrictions between 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. and prohibit the overnight parking of trucks in its parking lot.

The proposed Walmart deal was both praised and criticized.

Pat O'Brien, a former Cibolo council member, favored the proposed agreement put forth by Herrera. “The 380 agreement is something that is needed in many ways,” O'Brien said. “Anyone who drives on Borgfeld Road on any kind of regular basis (knows) that road is in dire need of repair. This is a way to help us get, at a tax-free loan, to get this work done.”

But Frank Burney, the attorney representing both the Falcon Ridge and Bentwood Ranch homeowners' associations, said the proposed agreement mostly benefits the retail giant at the expense of Cibolo taxpayers.

Burney pointed out that Walmart would actually pay only $900,000 of the $3.7 million in infrastructure improvements after being reimbursed by the city.

“You are giving away the farm,” Burney said. “You really think that the citizens out here pay their taxes to subsidize Walmart, a company that made $17 billion last year?

“Why can't Walmart pay for its own infrastructure?” Burney questioned. “There are so many holes in that agreement you can drive a Walmart truck through (it).”